And there’s more: VPRO’s Morozov installation: The End of Cyber Utopia.

The documentary installation is a visual arena with eleven screens in a setting resembling a panopticon.

This Sunday, November 20th, will see the European premiere of Evegeny Morzov: The End of Cyber Utopia, a documentary installation presented at the Pakhuis de Zwijger. It’s not part of the official IDFA DocLab program, but definitely a tip for new media skeptics and enthusiasts alike. Until the end of October the installation was seen at the Gwangju Design Biennale in South Korea.

Smartphone’s and social media seem to be the new weapons used to topple both dictators and power structures. The euphoria over the Internet and its revolutionary role, seems endless. One man, Evgeny Morozov states that this is nothing more than a mirage. He takes Backlight into his battle against cyber utopianism.

This installation is a reconstruction of a recording session in which author Evgeny Morozov is visually bombarded with thoughts and situations on the effects of the technological revolution on totalitarianism, democracy and the people concerned. Morozov shares his criticism, flow of thought and dilemma’s with us. Morozov is an angry young man who fights the cyber-utopianism that is so dominant in today’s world.

Morozov grew up in communist Belarus and was just 5 years old when the Berlin wall fell. While working for a NGO in the former Soviet Republics and Central Asia he tried to organize revolts using social media. Disappointed with the impact, he wrote the book “The Net Dellusion: How Not To Liberate The World”. His status on Twitter currently is: “in transit”. In the installation Morozov engages in an intellectual battle with a remix of Vpro documentary-clips from the last 15 years. Spontaneously he reacts on the dilemma’s presented to him, while moving around in what he himself sees as a panopticon; leading to a vivid dialogue with the images. The result is an immersive documentary experience over 11 screens.

This installation was developed by Marije Meerman, who works as a documentary director, together with the team of the future-affairs television series Backlight of the Dutch public broadcasting company Vpro. The Backlight team is a group of journalists, filmmakers and researchers that tracks current thought on the effects of globalization, technology and international politics over people’s daily lives.

DOCLAB

IDFA DocLab is the New Media program of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Since 2007, the program showcases new forms of documentary storytelling and interactive media art, both online and offline. During the IDFA Festival in November, DocLab presents a competition program for Digital Documentary Storytelling, live cinema events, interactive installations, workshops and industry panels. The program is open to all media that can be used to tell a documentary story.more